Brother and sister Nicolas and Yumi Kendall, their cousin Daniel Foster, and Nurit Bar-Josef founded The Dryden String Quartet in Washington, DC in 2002. The quartet distinguishes itself by combining its members’ remarkably accomplished and varied musical lives into a unified and vibrant ensemble, which has received critical praise for its "spectacular" and "thrilling" performances. Ms. Bar-Josef has been the Concertmaster of the National Symphony Orchestra since 2001. Mr. Foster shares the stage with Ms. Bar-Josef as the National Symphony’s Principal Violist, a title he has held since 1995. Ms. Kendall is the recently appointed Assistant Principal Cellist of the Philadelphia Orchestra. Mr. Kendall, who has embarked on a solo career on the roster of Young Concert Artists, has a range of musical interests encompassing a broad variety of styles, which he explores with his trio Time For Three.

Each member of the quartet brings a rich chamber music background to the group. Ms. Bar-Josef has performed at the Taos, Caramoor, Garth Newel, Strings in the Mountains and Portland chamber music festivals, and the Kendalls and Mr. Foster have performed at the Marlboro Music Festival, among others.

The quartet’s recent performances included a critically acclaimed appearance at The Curtis Institute of Music, on its Alumni Recital Series. They also performed at the University of Maryland, where Mr. Foster is a faculty member, and the Beethoven Society, at the German Embassy in Washington, DC.

The Dryden’s first performance, at the Netherlands Embassy, honored John Kendall—the grandfather of both the Kendalls and Mr. Foster—who is a well-respected violin pedagogue perhaps most well known for being one of the pioneers of the Suzuki method in the United States. In recognition of Mr. Kendall’s influence on the music world as well as on his family, the quartet chose to use a significant Kendall family name for the group. In May 2004 the Drydens were the featured performers at the Suzuki conference in Minneapolis.

as of 29 Jan 2005